The news was not widely publicized, especially in France, but it may well be remembered as the first time in the world that a country has banned the use of mercury.
On December 21, 2007, the Norwegian Minister of the Environment banned the use of mercury in any product. Thus, since January 1, 2008, dental fillings or amalgams are officially prohibited in Norway.
The Norwegian minister stated that "Mercury is among the most dangerous pollutants". He also said that good alternatives to mercury already exist to justify its ban. This decision did not come about by chance at the end of 2007, when the European Union, through a commission, was considering eliminating mercury from all dental preparations and banning dental amalgam. France is still in favor of dental fillings since 15 tons of mercury are put in the mouths of French people every year.
Mercury is a metal whose toxicity is such that it has the strictest safety standards: minimum concentration without risk for living cells: 0.1 µg/l according to the standard of the Environment Protection Agency (E.P.A) of the USA.
The sources of mercury pollution are diverse but by far the most important pollution comes from dental amalgams. A person with 8 metal amalgams in his mouth (which represents the average of the French population) is intoxicated with mercury at a rate of 15 µg per day. In comparison, environmental pollution from polluted air (factories) and consumption of mercury-contaminated fish is only 2 µg per day.
An amalgam (gray filling) is an alloy consisting of 50% mercury, 30% silver, 9% tin, 6% copper and some zinc. On average, an amalgam contains about 1 g, or 1,000,000 µg of mercury, which is huge. In the mouth, a filling undergoes both mechanical abrasion and electrochemical corrosion. Mercury is released mainly as vapors and enters the body through breathing. When measuring the fumes coming out of a mouth with many dental amalgams, the value exceeds 480 times the accepted industry safety standard. Symptoms of mercury poisoning evolve over time as mercury progressively builds up in the body.
At first, only minor health problems such as increased sweating, excessive salivation, unexplained fatigue, bad breath, dizziness and headaches are noticed. Progressively, neurological symptoms appear: emotional instability, irritability, depression, memory loss, insomnia. The progressive attack of the nervous system, preferential target of mercury, will be translated on the physical level by tingling in the hands, a burning sensation with sleepiness of the lower limbs, a light trembling of the fingers, eyelids or lips.
At a time when more and more studies are denouncing the probable involvement of mercury in Alzheimer's disease, we can hope that this decision will "contaminate" our political decision makers.
By Dr. Thierry Schmitz